I am not really interested in any of those three languages. I can't quite see myself living in those countries, so I am not sure how much I would use them anyway.So I would prefer if it were easy to learn and apply.

I would say go for French; it's the least useless and easiest of the bunch.

Thu Mar 22, 2012 10:44 pm

Gren

Joined: Tue Mar 20, 2012 10:47 pmPosts: 1177Location: Argentina

Re: Languages

well, spanish (native language) and english (not perfect but it's something). Also, a single words of japanease and portuguese (but anything enough to say I know the language)

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Sat Mar 24, 2012 2:49 pm

Onlythebassist

Joined: Mon Jul 12, 2010 2:35 pmPosts: 247Location: Angleterre

Re: Languages

I know English as my mother tongue, French as a second language and I'm currently learning German as my third. And for all those who are assuming the French is the impractical high-school diploma version - coup moi

German is actually the best, but we're responding to a post from seven months ago...

Hey... better late than never, no?

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Sun Oct 21, 2012 4:18 am

Radio Blue Heart

Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2012 10:27 pmPosts: 2234Location: North Carolina

Re: Languages

I want to learn Spanish.

Wanderer wrote:

So... I kind of have to learn another language for a later time.I can choose between these three: French, German, and Russian.Which do you recommend I learn out of these three?

As a spoken language, Russian is easy. You just have to learn the Cyrillic alphabet. It it alsogood if you want to learn other Slavic languages. It is also a very important inter-ethnic language in East Europe and Central Asia.

_________________"I have known hardship and learned to aid the wretched."-Virgil

Sun Oct 21, 2012 6:42 pm

0404

Re: Languages

Radio Blue Heart wrote:

I want to learn Spanish.

to de Mexico!can you teach me Russian?

Sun Oct 21, 2012 6:54 pm

Radio Blue Heart

Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2012 10:27 pmPosts: 2234Location: North Carolina

Re: Languages

texascat018 wrote:

Radio Blue Heart wrote:

I want to learn Spanish.

to de Mexico!can you teach me Russian?

No. My friend Jonathan speaks it but I don't. Those are just some factoids that I learned from him.

_________________"I have known hardship and learned to aid the wretched."-Virgil

Sun Oct 21, 2012 7:09 pm

0404

Re: Languages

I have few Russian and Ukrainian friends, it is just amusing to listen to them talking in their own language. all the Accents that I only seen on movies in real life!! I don't bother to ask them to teach me how to speak their Language, because I know it is really really hard question to answer.

Sun Oct 21, 2012 8:00 pm

Radio Blue Heart

Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2012 10:27 pmPosts: 2234Location: North Carolina

Re: Languages

texascat018 wrote:

I have few Russian and Ukrainian friends, it is just amusing to listen to them talking in their own language. all the Accents that I only seen on movies in real life!! I don't bother to ask them to teach me how to speak their Language, because I know it is really really hard question to answer.

I should make an effort to learn Russian or Serbian. I am fascinated by both cultures.

_________________"I have known hardship and learned to aid the wretched."-Virgil

Sun Oct 21, 2012 10:01 pm

Oblivious Adobo

Joined: Wed Mar 28, 2012 9:30 amPosts: 49

Re: Languages

English is my native language, I know a little Tagalog and I'm currently taking Spanish in school. I find Spanish easier to speak than Tagalog, but I find Tagalog easier to spell/read.

I have taken two years of German, a bit of Spanish, am currently trying to learn some Japanese, and have an Italian dictionary that I need to crack someday. I feel bad though since I can hardly remember what I have learned.

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Sun Nov 25, 2012 10:18 pm

Sarnoff

Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2012 5:33 amPosts: 80Location: Boring NC

Re: Languages

I have taken 3 semesters of German, had a bad teacher, didn't learn much. Don't think I'll ever take any more of it since the grammar is way too confusing to remember. On the bright side I can confuse/insult my friends with it and probably can speak fluently enough to not die in Deutschland.

I'm also apparently good at faking speaking languages because I can convince people I am speaking a foreign language almost all of the time.

I think I might take Spanish in college though because I'm debating Miami PD, LAPD, or Texas Border Patrol. Also I have wanted to go to Juarez to say I have survived it and see what it's like.

English is my native language. I took a couple of years of Spanish, and I would've taken another had it not been for my mom stepping in. I'm currently trying to learn sign language from my grandmother, who took a class on it a few years back.

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Mon Nov 26, 2012 9:13 pm

jopencjusz

Joined: Tue Mar 01, 2011 5:48 pmPosts: 1012Location: Poznań (Poland)

Re: Languages

My native language is Polish, also I know English and a little Spanish.

Student, basketball referee, activist in old basketball club and official member of this club

Tue Dec 25, 2012 6:57 pm

kurowolfe

Joined: Sat Jun 18, 2011 7:18 pmPosts: 2041Location: Sabah, Malaysia

Re: Languages

My apologies for necro-ing another thread, but I need some help.Recently I've watched this scene in an anime, and apparently the song is in Esperanto. But I'm not sure whether the pronunciation in the song is correct or not.

So, is there a native speaker or someone who knows Esperanto here? If so, can you help confirm if the pronunciation is correct? I don't want to be misled again, like this other anime and its wrong pronunciation of baumkuchen =w=

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Thu Jun 20, 2013 11:43 am

Lifio13

Joined: Sun Dec 02, 2012 6:27 amPosts: 180Location: Scotland

Re: Languages

My main language is English, however, I do know some German, but mostly forgotten what I've learnt from when I stopped it stopped being compulsory for me over a year ago. I do know a little bit of French too, but I last studied that when I was 12, and switched to German.

My apologies for necro-ing another thread, but I need some help.Recently I've watched this scene in an anime, and apparently the song is in Esperanto. But I'm not sure whether the pronunciation in the song is correct or not.

So, is there a native speaker or someone who knows Esperanto here? If so, can you help confirm if the pronunciation is correct? I don't want to be misled again, like this other anime and its wrong pronunciation of baumkuchen =w=

Note that I don't speak Esperanto, but I study pronunciation in languages with IPA and Wikipedia is great as a resource in that area.

It's very close. Since Esperanto is a created language, its pronunciation is not exact and varies a little depending on the speakers background, but she has some obvious Japanese influence in a few places that aren't necessary to copy faithfully. Just note that the 'ĝ' is pronounced like 'j' (it sounded like she was softening it a bit which normally isn't necessary, maybe artistic?), 'g' is pronounced like 'g' (again with the softening), and 'r' is pronounced like 'r' (from Malay and many other languages but not English and Japanese )Everything else was correctly pronounced as far as I'm aware.Esperanto is very simple to pronounce because every letter has one sound and all letters in every word are pronounced, nothing is silent.

Speaking of languages... Russian's native, I guess I can say I'm proficient in English, I have some knowledge in Serbian, and minimal knowledge in French that was not displaced with Physics, Maths, etc.

_________________The fact is, we don't make the same mistake more than 4 times....Maybe 5."

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Thu Jun 20, 2013 3:55 pm

kurowolfe

Joined: Sat Jun 18, 2011 7:18 pmPosts: 2041Location: Sabah, Malaysia

Re: Languages

Obbl wrote:

kurowolfe wrote:

My apologies for necro-ing another thread, but I need some help.Recently I've watched this scene in an anime, and apparently the song is in Esperanto. But I'm not sure whether the pronunciation in the song is correct or not.

So, is there a native speaker or someone who knows Esperanto here? If so, can you help confirm if the pronunciation is correct? I don't want to be misled again, like this other anime and its wrong pronunciation of baumkuchen =w=

Note that I don't speak Esperanto, but I study pronunciation in languages with IPA and Wikipedia is great as a resource in that area.

It's very close. Since Esperanto is a created language, its pronunciation is not exact and varies a little depending on the speakers background, but she has some obvious Japanese influence in a few places that aren't necessary to copy faithfully. Just note that the 'ĝ' is pronounced like 'j' (it sounded like she was softening it a bit which normally isn't necessary, maybe artistic?), 'g' is pronounced like 'g' (again with the softening), and 'r' is pronounced like 'r' (from Malay and many other languages but not English and Japanese )Everything else was correctly pronounced as far as I'm aware.Esperanto is very simple to pronounce because every letter has one sound and all letters in every word are pronounced, nothing is silent.

I see, that's good to hear. Thank you very much, Obbl, Veb ^^ I was worried because I am very well-aware that the Japanese have some trouble pronouncing some sounds like the 'l' and 'zh' sounds.

There is another version of the song, being sung by the voice actor of the purple-haired lady. Which is more fluent and beautiful, I think.

I have heard about Esperanto and the history behind it, but I never did actually heard the language being spoken until I watched this particular anime. Maybe I'll learn a little of it some time later, since it does look easier to pronounce and learn.

As for the thread, my main languages are Malay and English, and I consider Japanese as a third language. I also have some working knowledge of Arabic, Mandarin, Jawi (the Arabic-inspired writing system of the Malay language) and the Bajau language. Tried learning French and German before, but the pronunciation is way too hard for my Malay tongue =w=

My native language is Filipino. But I speak in English a lot more. Problem is, I'm terrible at both of them. I know grammar is a problem everyone faces at some point, but mine is just...uuggggh. I struggle with words a lot recently.

_________________Heellooooooooo!!Anyone who wants to talk to me, please do. I get lonely sometimes and I get scared whenever I talk first...Avatar done byHukley.

Sat Jun 22, 2013 9:06 am

kurowolfe

Joined: Sat Jun 18, 2011 7:18 pmPosts: 2041Location: Sabah, Malaysia

Re: Languages

Filipino, as in Tagalog? I never heard of Filipino before.

Another question about the English language, does 'a couple' mean 'exactly two/a pair' or 'a few'? As in a couple of times; does it mean exactly two times, or a few times (=> 2 times)? This has always confused me as a secondary English speaker.

Another question about the English language, does 'a couple' mean 'exactly two/a pair' or 'a few'? As in a couple of times; does it mean exactly two times, or a few times (=> 2 times)? This has always confused me as a secondary English speaker.

I think "a couple" just means a few. Maybe. I'm not sure. Yes, I speak Filipino. Tagalog is just like a deeper version of Filipino. Which is harder and more difficult to understand.

_________________Heellooooooooo!!Anyone who wants to talk to me, please do. I get lonely sometimes and I get scared whenever I talk first...Avatar done byHukley.

Sun Jun 23, 2013 4:30 am

Dissension

Totally Not Rick

Joined: Fri Oct 31, 2008 5:42 pmPosts: 8190Images: 0

Re: Languages

I was always taught "a couple" equals two, "a few" is three, and "some" is any number four or greater.

Couple and few are becoming more and more equated in general usage, but the progression is still: couple < few < some/severalUsually a couple doesn't refer to any more than like five (if it ever goes that high). A few is usually about the same but also refers to small handfuls of little objects (like jellybeans). Some or several refer to larger numbers (usually it starts being used around 5 to 7) or larger handfuls than would constitute "a few". It's all subjective and some people never use "a couple" to refer to any more than two (since that is the literal meaning of the word).For the handfuls, I contrast "I'm going to have a few jellybeans" versus "I going to have some jellybeans". If I pour "a few" jellybeans into my hand, I expect the number of jellybeans to be small enough that I could probably count them fairly easily just looking at them (you could probably glance at 10 jellybeans in your hand and know that's about how many you have. 15 is probably pushing it.) If I pour "some" jellybeans into my hand, I expect that I would have to count them individually if I wanted to know how many I actually had (with 20 jellybeans in your hand you'd have trouble deciding how many you had at a glance.) It also has to do with the contrast between "a lot" and "a little". If you only want "a little" number of jellybeans, you're probably going for "a few". If you think it's more than "a little" (maybe not "a lot", but more than "a little"), you probably want "some".

A few is also used facetiously when there are clearly more than "a few". (eg "How many jellybeans have you had?" "Oh... a few" )

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